Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
In a UMTS network, radio resources are allocated to a given user equipment (UE) based on UE characteristics as well as the network resource management that is based on the current radio environment. Some examples of the UE characteristics include UE category, supported functionalities, current radio conditions as indicated by the channel quality indicator (CQI), power control bits, etc. Network resource management is based on the radio environment, congestion, power control and the quality-of-service (QOS) of the application, user privileges, etc.
As the modem characteristics and radio resource management algorithm are typically not known from the application user's perspective, an application might experience frequent stalls and loss of data during a particular session. Even when QOS is negotiated for the application, with the variations in the actual bandwidth, data might still get stalled at the radio link control (RLC) level. As most applications available for a UE are written based on the LAN based underlying infrastructure, resource management variations in the wireless environment can have foreseeable impact on the user experience such as smoothness of media data delivery.
As the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, research and development continue to advance the UMTS technologies not only to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband access, but to advance and enhance the user experience with mobile communications.